MT. PLEASANT, Sanpete County — Fire investigators were sifting through a charred Wasatch Academy dormitory Thursday morning after a four-alarm fire whipped through the building.
No one was injured in the Wednesday afternoon blaze that apparently started in the attic of Alice Dormitory about 2 p.m. Fire investigators Thursday morning were assessing the cause and total financial loss.
The dorm was home to 30 males who attend Wasatch Academy, a private boarding school of 150 students located 100 miles south of Salt Lake City in Mt. Pleasant, population 2,500. Nestled on 17 acres in the foothills of the Wasatch Plateau, the school is on the National Register of Historic Sites.
The Rev. David Boge of the town's First Presbyterian Church said he called 911 after he saw smoke coming from the dormitory roof. "I could see the flames from clear across town," Boge said.
By the time fire crews arrived, the attic was filled with smoke. Thirty-five firefighters from Mt. Pleasant, Fairview, Ephraim and Spring City had the blaze under control by 4 p.m., but not before the building suffered total damage to its roof and attic. The two-story dorm also sustained partial damage on the second floor.
No surrounding structures were damaged.
The 30 students living in the dorm were not in the building when the fire started, Wasatch Academy facilities manager Jim Berlin said.
The displaced students spent the night in the four remaining dorms on campus, Berlin said. For now they will likely be doubled up with students living in single rooms.
"We were trying something new this year, giving more people single rooms, so we'll probably go back to the way it was," Berlin said.
The oldest continuously operating secondary school in Utah, Wasatch Academy was founded by Dr. Duncan McMillan, a Presbyterian of Scottish descent, in 1875.
McMillan came to Utah for health reasons and was eventually asked to help educate the community's children. McMillan agreed, and during its first 100 years, Wasatch Academy educated mostly children from the surrounding community who came from the homes of ranchers, farmers, forest workers and missionaries.
In the 1970s the Presbyterian Church dropped its sponsorship of the school, and Wasatch Academy became a private institution in 1974.
Today's student body in grades 9-12 represents 24 states and 15 countries, with only 36 students coming from Utah. Others hail from countries such as India, Nepal, Kenya, Latvia, Germany, Congo, Thailand and Korea.
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